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The Muppet Show ITC ATV Zoot Ending Shots and Promos (Complete Collection)

by: Jim Henson

Publication date: 1981-03-15

Topics: the muppet show, zoot

Language: English

The Muppet Show Zoot Endings and Promos

Loretta Lynn, etc

The Muppet Show ITC ATV Zoot Ending Shots

Episodes with Loretta Lynn, Dudley Moore, Kaye Ballard, Harry Belafonte, Roger Miller, and Mac Davis had unique endings. (Danny Kaye and probably Julie Andrews had unique Christmas endings in their initial airings.)

It's unclear if the Mac Davis episode ever actually aired with a final shot of a Zoot Beaker, but a still has been pulled from the earlier shot of this Zoot Beaker.

The Kaye Ballard ending is unusual, in that they had an alternate shot of the Electric Mayhem and Kermit backstage, maybe from a promo, and added that to the ending on repeats, DVD and Disney+. There are two versions of this.

Disney+ versions are deinterlaced upscales, at half the original PAL video frame rate of 50i (also slowed to 24p).

The final shot of every Muppet Show was usually a shot of Zoot blowing one last saxophone note. A handful of episodes have episode-specific endings. The actual shot of Zoot was, I think, the same during season 1-2 episodes, and then during season 3-5 episodes (where he wears a hat).

A large ITC logo was superimposed over Zoot, or an ATV logo in the UK. In season 1 both logos appear. (The UK credits were left-justified, and the international credits were center-justified. Current releases use either at random.)

Crucially, due to changing rights, these shots have not appeared on later repeats and video/streaming releases. They didn't keep a clean version of the shot I guess.

Most circulating copies of these endings are poor quality, and most of the episode-specific endings are not circulating.

Zoot was reshot in the mid-1980s, in both hat and hatless versions. It does vary- I think there's one take of the hatless and three of the hat. You usually see some version of this at the end of DVD and Disney+ episodes. He's greener.

In the 80s HIT version, Zoot was originally blowing a graphical bubble, and the shot was held much longer, with extra audience laughter.

The ITC Season 1-2 Zoot made it to the German DVD of season 1, on disc 1's episodes and the Peter Ustinov episode. Also (with season 2 logo) on the Spanish version of the Playhouse VHS, Gonzo Presents Muppet Weird Stuff. Note that the logos are different from episode to episode.

The German show had a different end credit sequence in general, which was standarized, starting with a zooming-out shot of the orchestra pit, taken from the Juliet Prowse and Connie Stevens episodes (101 and 102).

Recent digital Disney Channel broadcasts of the German Muppet Show- which I seem to only have as deinterlaced copies- used the original season 1/2 ITC/ATV Zoot and Orchestra stings exclusively (in season 4/5 episodes that didn't have them originally).